Campaign Roundup

As Jimmy Carter steadily pockets more delegates, Ted Kennedy is increasingly at odds with the Democratic Party powers-that-be. To the frustration of the Kennedy campaign, the Democratic National Committee is looking right past the convention this summer to the election in November.

Chairman John White announced over a week ago that he was turning over the national committee facilities to the Carter campaign to begin planning for the general election. White also hired Carter campaign staff director Les Francis as the party's executive director, and brought in Carter campaign strategist Robert Keefe to consult on Democratic convention arrangements.

When Kennedy and Kirk demanded that White resign last week for taking sides before the convention. White called the demand "a fleeting attempt to get some media exposure" and said he had no intention of resigning.

Texas Democratic chairman Bill Goldberg is sending Kennedy a telegram, signed by various Democratic officials, urging Kennedy "not to continue the futility" of staying in the race.

As with Walter Cronkite, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Hugh Carey befor him, Morris "Mo" Udall's rejection of the idea of running in the second spot on an Anderson ticket was not in response to a direct offer.

But the staffs of both Udall and Anderson, as well as their wives, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch May 8, have urged the two men to join political forces in the Anderson campaign.

With 16 of 36 GOP primaries to go, Ronald Reagan is nearly fenced off from using paid advertising because of the looming primary spending limit.

The Reagan campaign is down to about $2 million before it hits the $14.7 million limit, which applies to spending at the national convention as well.

John Anderson has successfully petitioned his way onto the presidential ballot in three states: Michigan, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. And in Utah, where the petition deadline is May 12, Anderson supporters have collected well over twice the 300 required signatures. The next deadline Anderson faces is May 16 in North Carolina, where according to his campaign office in Washington, "things are going well" in collecting the 10,000 necessary signatures.

Lawyers for the Anderson campaign also are trying to gain access to the ballots of the five states where Anderson has missed petition deadlines: Maine, Kentucky, Maryland, New Mexico, and Ohio.

In view of the strained relations between the two men in the past, a vote of support from Gerald Ford at a GOP convention nominating Ronald Reagan this summer could give a solid boost to party unity -- pulling more moderate factions into solidarity with a Reagan ticket.

Perhaps with this in mind, national committee chairman Brock announced May 8 that Ford will speak at the opening session of the July 14 convention. The traditional keynote address, by Rep. Guy Vander Jagt of Michigan, will be shifted to the second night of the convention, lending prominence to the Ford speech.

The same day his speech was announced, Ford told a Montana audience that George Bush should continue to challenge Reagan for the nomination since "competition is good for any political race.m

The philosophical differences between the two candidates, Ford said, were not great enough to weaken the GOP in the November election.m

"Under the circumstances," Henry Kissinger said in New York last week, he would support Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter in the November election.

"I would like to hear Governor Reagan spell out his positions more fully," Mr. Kissinger said. "But under the circumstances, I would support Mr. Reagan."